150 Kids with one (1) classroom? And THAT one (1) classroom with no single desk?
It’s 6am on Friday 14th April 2016, a day after Kids Comp Camp Tana River April 2017. I was out to meet Matano to visit His school (Adhama Pri Schl) which attended the camp from the farthest, a whooping 40km away. The camp brought together 150 kids from 6 schools from Bura Constituency, Tana North Sub County, Tana River County.
We boarded His boda boda (motorbike) and off we went. But before we left madogo shopping center we stopped by several homesteads and Matano had short conversations with the owners. Later I came to understand, He was ensuring the Kids were up and ready to be picked to be taken back home.
Matano explains because of the distance they made accommodation arrangements with relatives living around the training venue so that the kids don’t have to commute daily. This was a quite a relief, because I was wondering how they’d travel for 40km and still be able to concentrate in class? I was delighted to see how the community had owned up the camp. Humbled to hear of the great lengths the community went to ensure the kids were available for the camp.
In one of the homesteads I met Madam Hadija Yusuf who is a teacher at the school we were about to visit.
A look at the watch it’s 6:15am. The sun was already out and starting to scorch. We had left the shopping center and now into the villages. The road was rough, dusty and sandy. For the better part, it seemed riding along a river stream. Once or twice veered off the road. To avoid off road turn off we kept reducing pressure from the front tyre. From my view I could only see a few homesteads. The vegetation was dry with a few shrubs. The terrain was flat and thankfully it hadn’t rained for like a week. It was very clear if it had rained the road would be impassable and if it was to rain that would be the end of the journey.
Soon we started meeting herds of goats, donkeys and camels accompanied by families. The donkeys and camels carried luggage on their backs. I could see mattress, firewood and utensil hanging on the side. More interesting, I could see little pretty baby faces nicely seated on the luggage. The babies seemed to enjoy the journey.
“This is almost every day living here. The community, the Somalis, they are pastoralists. They are ever on the move looking for pasture for their animals” Matano explains.
We pass through several village centers and one thing I noted all through was sign boards of NGOs indicating water, health, food projects. I ask Matano if this had transformed the community and He responds with a quick no and adds “even they themselves have found it is not working and so they are pulling out”.
Almost an hour and half later, we get to this wide open field with a single block of a building. Next to the field was a river stream. We slow down and stop. “Tumefika, we have arrived” Matano says as He is alighting from the bike. We started walking around the field. We get inside the building block. It is not a big as it seemed from afar. It’s a single room with a few charts hanging on the wall. “What is this room for?” I ask
“This is our only class. In here we combine class 6,7, and 8.” Matano responds.
“Where does the rest of the school learn from?” I ask.
While pointing to a nearby bush He answers “We combine class 3,4 and 5 under that tree and nursery, class 1 and 2 on the that other tree”.
That took a while to sink especially the use of the words ‘we combine’ and ‘under a tree’. Both of the pointed trees were on the river bank.
He continued “So this means when it rains, no school for up to class 5 and below. Also, no school, when it is dusty because of strong winds or when Somalis pass their animals across the field”. At the back of my mind wondering, since when did rain and dust cause school to close?
I look around and ask “so where did you take the desks”?
“We usually don’t have desks. This building was constructed by the CDF in 2006 with no desks so the children sit on the floor”.
Next to the block, they are several wooden poles dug in a room like manner.
“What is this?”
“This is an extra class we were trying to build. The village elders brought the polls and we were supposed to purchase cement to start with the floor. But we got stuck because we lacked finances”.
“So how many Kids do you have?”
“Currently we have enrolled 150 children in the school.”
“How many teachers do you have?”
“We have 4 teachers. Judy and I (they are couple). Rose recently joined volunteer teacher. Rose graduated recently from University of Nairobi School of Astrology. And we have Madam Hadija who is posted here as a ECD teacher. But due to the shortage she handles the rest of the school as well”.
This reminded me during the second day of the camp I had a chat with Judy asking her the school’s greatest need. She mentioned a classroom but more interesting school bags. Usually they don’t have bags. They just pick the book for the day and run to school.
In the first day of the camp we got into some challenge trying to explain the concept behind folders and files using school bag and books analogy. It didn’t work. The kids had no idea what is a school bag.
We walk across the river and get to a mud house.
“This is our house. This is where we stay. We have several things here. One is a solar charging system. The system can charge solar lamps and mobile phones. . The lamps are given free but payable for 10 bob a day for one and half years. The payment is done via Mpesa. There are several options of paying monthly, or quarterly given that after a year and half its paid back in full. Total cost of ownership is around Ksh 5000 over 1.5 years. Once the full payment is settled the lamp holder owns it and He is given a solar panel as well. The system is from the Kenya Power & SINOTEC.”
I didn’t know Kenya Power had a version of M-kopa.
I entered the room with solar charging unit and I meet a young man. He was studying. By His side a text book, exercise book and a phone. I notice He was calculating some sums on exercise book. The phone is charging and He keeps looking at it. ‘My name is Caleb’ ‘My name is Mohammed’ we get to know each. I am now close enough to his phone and I see a past paper.
“How did you get this past paper on your phone?”
“I downloaded it from a website using my safaricom bundles. To download the past paper is free but to get the marking schemes you have to pay 20 bob. How do you pay? You pay via mpesa and then it is sent to you via gmail.”
Mohammed demonstrates how this is all done. He is quite confident and quick to maneuver through several web pages as some take long to load. I also notice as we talk He is chatting on several whatsapp groups (Millennials things:-)).
Matano comes back and gives more details about Mohammed. Mohammed is a former student of the school and was among the first group of class 8 to seat for KCPE. He is now a form 2 student at Garissa High School and one of the top students in His class. He is now the ‘talk’ of the village and role model in the community. Mohammed is sharp and hands on, whenever someone brings a solar lamb he takes it and fixes it in the system. He goes ahead to explain how the system works and tries to troubleshoot in case the lamb fails to charge.
A few minutes later another young man walks in. He is Siyat. He is brother to Mohammed. Both were are former pupils of the school and now doing extremely well in Garissa High School. Later met their Dad, Mr. Noor, who is also the village elder, and He was very proud of the Sons. Because of Mohammed and Siyat more parents had started to take education more seriously and insisting their kids attend school. This is a major breakthrough in such a pastoralists community .
I asked Mohammed what He wants to pursue after High school (as we always do) He said wants to be a Cardiologists.
Afterwards we visit several families in the village. Walking with Matano across the village makes me feels like a ‘who is who’ in the community. Every place we go we are stopped and greeted “Habari ya walimu?”. Matano takes the chance to introduce me as ‘computer teacher’ and I could just see the overwhelming excitement in their faces. I could feel the warmth in their smiles. Next they ask how the computer camp was and how their kids were doing. Matano explains how successful the camp was and that the kids were on their way coming back home. I clearly see how big deal attending the camp was.
I meet Amari, who He is in class 5, and He is the only who understands Swahili in the group. So when they ask questions in Somali He quickly translate to Swahili and when we respond he translates to Somali. It is sad that He didn’t make it for the camp before He was on duty to look after the goats.
The other side of the village there is a brand new building which is meant to be a health center. I hear it is developed by the government of Kenya with help of the World Bank. It is yet to be commissioned. (Guess what came to mind? #UhuruChallenge especially now that elections are here)
As the conversation grew, I ask Matano what is this one thing that the villagers can do and sustain themselves without depending on aid. He mentions agriculture. Tana River (the longest river in Kenya) is around 5 km away. There are several farmers who are growing Water Melons for sale.
This I had to see.
We rushed to the farm. As we got near I notice the village is almost in the river bank of the great River Tana. We pass several water pools and the soil changes from sandy to muddy. We get stuck several in the muddy on the way. We get to see two large tracts of land that is fenced off, and well irrigated with water channel. The water is pumped by a generator from River Tana. It is such a fresh breath, serene and green; opposite contrast to the dry and sunny village.
“This is private land. The owners bought and developed the land. Most of the produce is sold in Garissa and Nairobi and even Dubai” Mwala the caretaker explains.
Why can’t the local take up this prove model? Why can’t the development partners support the locals to take up this model and scale? Matano tries to explain why this is not an easy path. One the community is largely pastoralists so farming is not a priority.
After the farm visit we get to the bike and rushed back. I had a bus to catch. Ooops, on the way got puncture. Thankful another bike came by and I got a lift. But I still missed the bus. I had to drop in Garissa Town to look for another one bus. Two hours later I got it and was on the way back to Nairobi.
What a day. More than 80km on Motorbike and 350km on the bus. I was dog tired but more pressing the question, what could be done to help the situation?
Disclaimer
On this day I didn’t take photos. First because I forgot the devices. Secondly, in 2015 we were thrown behind bars for shooting an area near River Tana main bridge (story for another day). I learnt on initial visits to keep away devices. Now that I am a friend to the community next time we’ll do take pretty good photos, videos and even a vblog. Last but not the least, i think it was more engaging to bond with the community with least distraction from cameras.